Will No One Take Responsibility Of The Massacres In Pakistan?

Once again, terrorists have so easily taken dozens of lives of common Pakistanis through their evil attack. This time, they chose the Christian community who had gathered to celebrate their religious event Easter at a park (Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park) in Lahore. At least 72 people have by bow lost their lives and over three hundreds got injured in the attack. An independent faction of the Pak Taliban has claimed responsibility of the incident.

It is important to notice that the Lahore attack was carried out when the military operation “Zarb-e-Azb” had already completed one and half year since it was launched and also the Army Chief as well as the Prime Minister of Pakistan had publicly declared the 90% completion of the operation. Now, the Lahore blast, just like the Charsadda University attack, has not only raised serious questions over the success of Zarb-e-Azb, but also on its direction.

It is on record that after the Charsadda university attack, the federal as well as the provincial governments directed all the private schools to adopt proper security arrangements in order to avoid any imminent terrorist attacks. In this regard, the government of Punjab not only issued warning letters to private schools, but also even registered cases (FIR`s) over the insufficient security measures at the premises, which brought about a dispute between the Punjab government and the associations of Private schools in the province.

Obviously it was good to direct private schools to ensure necessary security measures to safeguard the lives of the kids, but it seemed to be quite irrational to shift all the burden on the shoulders of school owners and even lodge FIR`s against them (especially when no causality had taken place there). However, the government officials defended their step saying, “We would not compromise over the security of our children”. Keeping in view this argument, question is, was any FIR/case registered against the owners/administrators/management of the Army Public School Peshawar over the inappropriate security arrangements due to which Taliban terrorists easily managed to enter the school premises of Pakistan army and cruelly killed more than 140 innocent kids?

Similarly, how many FIR`s should be lodged against the government authorities for having totally failed to provide the required security to the people due to which terrorists killed over 60,000 Pakistanis in the last several years? Are the federal and provincial interior ministers and their heads (Prime Minister of Pakistan and chief ministers of the relevant provinces), not under oath to give protection to each and every citizen of the country regardless of their political belonging, ethnicity, religious and sectarian affiliation?

The Taliban groups not only attacked the public places (generally considered as “soft” targets), but they also hit the “hard” ones like Karachi Airport, Police training centers and academies, air bases, prison, dockyard and even the headquarters of Pakistan armed forces (GHQ). Importantly, all these “hard” targets were under the control of those people and institutions whose prime objective was not only to provide protection to people, but also to safeguard each & every installation of the country. So, did anyone take the responsibility of the disasters in the country due to the security lapses? Was any head rolled over such a continuous negligence or, perhaps, deliberately abetting or facilitating to the terrorists? Is taking no action against these perpetrators not obvious compromise over the security of over 180 million Pakistanis?

Furthermore, since the Zarb-e-Azb was initiated, many people including analysts, politicians and anchorpersons had been demanding the political and the military establishments to extend the military operation to all over Punjab as well so that the safe havens of religious extremists could be eradicated. But, the Punjab government always resisted that. Now, after the Lahore blast, the Army chief General Raheel Sharif has ordered an operation in Punjab too during which several hide outs of extremists have been targeted. In fact, the way the security forces are targeting the terrorists` hiding places in Punjab, it shows that they were already having information about them. Then, question is why did the Punjab and federal government avoid taking actions against the radical groups in the province? Factually speaking, if they had not created hurdles in the way of Zarb-e-Azb heading towards Punjab, would we have not saved the human lives we lost in the Lahore Blast? Should such an act not be construed as sheltering the terrorists deliberately?      

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, in his recent address to the nation, said, “Our lenience should not be taken for a weakness”. He gave this warning to the terrorists of the Lahore blast. But question is, those monsters who had already killed thousands of Pakistanis including the innocent school children and had even played football with the heads of Pak army men, are still being treated leniently, as the PM himself reveals?? If really so, then what about the credibility of the claims according to which Zarb-e-Azb had badly dented the net work of terrorist groups in the country? On top of all, if the radical groups are being treated leniently, then actually who has been dealt with iron hands in the disguise of Zarb-e-Azb and Karachi operation??

For God`s sake, the people of Pakistan (both Muslims and non-Muslims) have already suffered a lot by the religious extremists. So, there should be no more drama or double game with them in the name of operation against the terrorists. Even this time too if fact are hidden and people are fooled by the establishment, then they will not be willing to trust the rulers anymore. And when the state authorities start losing people`s trust, it becomes difficult for a state to survive.